UC Student Spot - Sonia Levy

UC Student Spot - Sonia Levy

Oshin came to study in Canada from a part of Northern India where being a Christian can make you a target of persecution. However, in her first semester at Tyndale she found herself facing the possibility of having to live on the Toronto streets in the middle of winter. It was shortly after she received Sonia’s phone number that she was told that she had to leave the place she was staying with nowhere else to go.

One day, in the hall before a Philosophy class, Sonia Levy, a Canada Post Supervisor and Bachelor of Religious Education student in Tyndale’s degree completion program, saw Oshin. After studying and talking together Sonia gave Oshin her phone number. “I said, ‘okay so here’s my number so we can catch up on studies sometime,’ just casually speaking, not realizing that within a week she was already in trouble,” says Sonia.

Sonia went out of her way to help a fellow Tyndale student in need. “I did not know this young lady but because of Christ—Christ gives us trust with one another and Christ says to trust Him—I took her in.” said Sonia Levy.

When Sonia is asked why she took Oshin into her house she answers simply, “She had nowhere to go at all.” Sonia had to make adjustments to living with Oshin. They came from very different cultures and age-groups. However, coming from the diverse Jamaican culture, Sonia said the adjustment was not difficult. “It’s easy for me to embrace someone else because it is in my culture.”

“We’re at church and people [say], ‘Man you treat her like your daughter’. There’s an understanding: [the difference in cultures] doesn’t matter. If everyone could do that this world would be great.”